Woman nails the Tories for their disability hatred in epic Twitter thread

Last Updated: March 18, 2016By
Not disabled enough? Hateful people, fuelled by Tory rhetoric, are attacking anyone they think doesn't deserve sickness or disability benefits - even though they are completely unqualified to judge.

Not disabled enough? Hateful people, fuelled by Tory rhetoric, are attacking anyone they think doesn’t deserve sickness or disability benefits – even though they are completely unqualified to judge [Image: New Statesman].

Here is a person who needs many more followers on Twitter. She goes by the handle bears! bears! bears! (@fractalbears) and she has just nailed almost everything that is wrong with the Conservative Government’s policy on disability.

But don’t take my word for it – here she is:

A lot of us were saying pre-2010 that a Tory win would mean the suffering of a lot of disabled people. Very few people believed us.

They promised that disabled people would be protected, that we need to care for the most vulnerable in society (as they still are).

They got around it by claiming enormous levels of fraud, that we have an easy life while others are struggling. Instilling an us vs them.

Despite it being known to be lies, destroying the lives of so many already suffering, they continue even now to do the same.

The divide and conquer rhetoric has weaved it’s way through our society, people can’t wait to vent their anger at someone they’ve seen standing up out of a wheelchair or carrying shopping, having no clue as to their ailments.

The press know this and feed it with stories of scroungers, light on facts and instead full of speculation. MPs pile in by talking about people ‘taking advantage’, feeding it more.

Rather than stand up for us, when the average person speaks of ESA/PIP, the first thing they talk about is ‘if you’re GENUINELY disabled..’

Not that it’s awful so many of us are dying, often by our own hand. Not that we’re losing homes, losing our care, being dragged through hell.

Nope, instead ‘well as long as you’re NOT faking’.

We know what they think of us, what you think of us. We’ve heard you loud and clear.

It’s always “I didn’t mean you, you’re okay, it’s THEM”

They’ll even speak to you about how they saw their neighbour doing this and that “they’re the ones I mean, the people who are faking”. They have no idea of the state of our health but feel they’re in a position to judge.

I’ve had it. I used my disabled badge when spouse drove me to the shops. Someone wrote into the local paper aghast at someone so blatantly “abusing” it simply because I was young, the car was sporty (an MR2), and they couldn’t see what was wrong with me.

I was so crushed.

People are watching us all the time, waiting for us to do something to justify saying “FAKE DISABLED!”, taking pictures of us.. Is it any wonder we’re getting anxious about leaving the house? Going out terrifies me at times. There were enough obstacles already without having to try and avoid unwarranted suspicion.

I’ve been followed, spat on, had my chair moved without permission, spoken down to, verbally abused… and all *because I’m disabled*.

This is what all this rhetoric does, what it culminates as.

Hate crimes are skyrocketing because of it.

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23 Comments

  1. Clare Willison March 18, 2016 at 3:07 pm - Reply

    Thanks to this woman who’s taken the words right out of my mind and expressed them so eloquently. Just as an imam is rightly silenced for inciting religious hatred, so should the MPs and press for this ignorant and socially destructive propaganda. There is something seriously wrong with a country that sets its citizens against each other while the rich and super rich abuse their power and influence to withhold millions in taxes.

    • Joan Edington March 18, 2016 at 8:11 pm - Reply

      You’re certainly right about the MSM Clare, especially TV. I remember when Benefits Street came out and the disgust it was greeted with by some. I don’t mean disgust at the people in the program, rather those who, like me, don’t consider that sort of program should have a place on any medium. Nowadays it is difficult to scan the TV pages any day without something similar being broadcast, not just by the expected channels either.

  2. chriskitcher March 18, 2016 at 3:28 pm - Reply

    Oh the echos of how the Nazis treated anyone they did not want. So sad that this country has fallen under the same grotesqueness that the Germans did in the 1930’s all thanks to Tory lies and propaganda.

  3. autismandate March 18, 2016 at 3:43 pm - Reply

    Yup, I said it before and I’ll say it again.All those voters that sleep walked into this conservative persecution at the last election, will now be waking up and wondering why there is austerity only for the poor and disabled and wondering why they are allowing the suffering to carry on.

    • Joanna March 18, 2016 at 4:46 pm - Reply

      Maybe not, as long as the propaganda machine can screw their heads a little further to the right so they can’t see us as humans in need and themselves as responsible to help us.

  4. Rupert Mitchell (@rupert_rrl) March 18, 2016 at 3:49 pm - Reply

    We know who the real frauds are don’t we!

  5. jbw31 March 18, 2016 at 3:56 pm - Reply

    She is right & it’s what I’ve been trying to get across. A lot of disabled people are too frightened to put their heads above the parapet just in case they get the wrong attention and so are too scared to fight their own corner or help and support the few who are trying to get their voices heard. We have so few ‘important’ people willing to stand up and defend us because they’re not disabled and don’t know the real disaster that is happening to us the most vulnerable. Do we all have to die before any notice will be taken?

  6. mrmarcpc March 18, 2016 at 4:33 pm - Reply

    Nice one Bears!

  7. Sam Wallander March 18, 2016 at 4:41 pm - Reply

    exactly

  8. David March 18, 2016 at 4:47 pm - Reply

    Do the tories want the disabled to parade around in rags? Do they want them to look like Falstaff’s wounded soldiers “begging at the town’s end?” Sounds like it.

  9. Stephen Mclachlan March 18, 2016 at 5:17 pm - Reply

    Firstly I really don’t think the rich give a toss about the disabled or the poor, as long as they are getting richer who cares how it actually happens.
    And the tories will always look after the rich it’s what they do, they don’t know any other way.
    They are determined to get rid of the welfare state, this is a huge drain on taxes, so to get rid of it and they can then lower the tax further for the super rich.
    Next will be the NHS get rid that, force people to have private health insurance, and if you have pre-existing health problems like I do tuff, it’s the poppers clinics for us but not hospital as we can’t afford hospital as I am disabled and unable to work.
    Can you see where we are heading people to a conservative utopia a land of private health care low taxes for the rich, and probably the beginning of a new Victorian era style work house for the poor and some form of debtors detention centre’s.
    Also the EU referendum will be rigged in some way as to make us stay in, so the super rich have access to dirt cheap labour and the continuation and expansion of zero hour contact’s.
    And the aim of all of the above is to keep us in our place, where we belong.
    And the lady was absolutely spot on, it just amazes me how people after the first five years of these scum, would then vote them in on their own, it was like as if they hadn’t done anything bad in the first five as a coalition.
    But they they managed to slope all the blame on to the Libdems and the electrate fell for it.
    So I suppose you get what you ask for and the south East of England ask for this mob and always will.

  10. Terry Davies March 18, 2016 at 5:41 pm - Reply

    disability can be both physical and mental. Historically physical disability is more evident and the community view them as deserving poor who need support. however a problem arises if a person has a mental disability, this is not manifest generally in physical symptoms however it can be debilitating and present problems linked to finding employment. nowadays these sufferers are deemed more able, and undeserving poor.
    the Fit for work assessments are performed by those untrained with perceptions of both physically and mentally disabled people as undeserving poor.
    this is where the poor communication occurs creating the gulf between those who assess claimants and claimants themselves. Sanctions were a last resort but now it seems to be part of the process triggered for any reason as seen by unqualified and untrained staff.
    No wonder their assessments are unrealistic tinged with unfairness and deemed cruel by the vast majority of the population.

  11. Sheila Jones March 18, 2016 at 6:13 pm - Reply

    November 30th2011……10-45

    No more can they do this,
    treat us like slaves.
    They are making us work
    right into our graves.
    We worry, we stress,
    we can’t pay the bills
    We’re catching more illnesses
    and popping more pills.
    People are marching,
    in the hope of fair play
    but the government are set
    and their saying NO WAY!
    But I don’t see them,
    hungry, cold and scared
    But our time is coming
    and I hope their prepared,
    the awakening has started
    the people will choose
    For we are the ones,
    who have nothing to lose…..
    Helias

    17/09/14
    The World that we are living in cannot remain the same,
    the time has come to make a stand
    and our lives we must reclaim.
    The chains that keep us shackled,
    Are rusting and breaking free,
    We want a life that’s beautiful
    Not full of misery……..
    Helias

    They take away the beauty
    In return they give us pain.
    Our Forests are disappearing,
    the animals the same.
    All for what they call a better World
    Where happiness is found,
    It was here in the beginning
    They just didn’t look around.
    We are left with devastation
    Nowhere left for us to turn,
    They have ruled this land with a rod of iron
    And no lessons did they learn.
    They cannot treat the people
    In the way that they have done.
    The people now should take a stand
    For we are all but one%………………

    Helias..

    Lies and Deceit.
    Sheila Jones on Sunday, 18 March 2012 at 10:55 ·
    They tell us things that are not true,
    they lie to make us believe.
    This Country’s in a real mess,
    Yes, they do deceive
    They take away our dignity,
    It’s us who feel the pain.
    They take away our hope, our homes,
    and yet they have no shame.
    But looking back through history
    it’s always been the way
    For the rich and the powerful to bleed us dry,
    each and every day.
    Helias

  12. KRS March 18, 2016 at 6:57 pm - Reply

    I want to see this Government in court over what it has done to disabled people.

    Death by Policy

    Frankly we should have them charged with theft of public property regarding the unmandated privatisations and then there is the illegal military intervention in Libya.

    There’s plenty of crimes to charge them with, but their oppression and persecution of disabled people along with low paid, sick and unemployed people should be at the top of the charge sheet.

  13. steven mcguire March 18, 2016 at 7:30 pm - Reply

    the best bit is osbourne thinks he going to be PM what a little weed of a man the bit about them and us thats what thatcher tryed as well the torys always show their true hand with their cull on the disabled and vulnerable thats always been their script i hope i never see another tory goverment well said bear

  14. Charles March 18, 2016 at 7:43 pm - Reply

    i’v not left my house in months, im only 23, i just don’t feel safe in public anymore.
    My parents are clearly worried, they encourage me to go out. but it feels like the whole country is being turned against us.

    • Mike Sivier March 19, 2016 at 2:56 pm - Reply

      I’m not disabled and I’m very strongly supportive of people with disabilities, and there are many more like me.

  15. Gilly March 18, 2016 at 7:49 pm - Reply

    So eloquently said – well done Bears!

  16. Thomas March 18, 2016 at 9:37 pm - Reply

    If the government went after other groups in this way, a lot of people would complain about it. If this government really wants disabled people to have jobs, it should introduce a quota system for companies to force them to employ the disabled.

    • ian725 March 19, 2016 at 1:11 pm - Reply

      Thomas I’m afraid that move would be blocked by the Tories Financial masters. They would imply that the costs to extra insurance and alterations would be simply too high to implement such a welcome measure.

  17. NMac March 19, 2016 at 9:25 am - Reply

    Sadly, “divide and rule” is the only thing the Tories and other right-wing reactionaries are good at.

  18. Dave March 20, 2016 at 9:35 am - Reply

    Some of these people may be ill or disabled themselves one day…I wonder if they’ll change their tune then.

  19. sylvia6545sylvia March 21, 2016 at 9:53 am - Reply

    They are The Devils Spawn!! every last one of them!

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